Member-only story
A Key to ‘Go to Market’ Success
“I really like your product, but I don’t need for it right now. I suggest you talk to Bill in Sales. He might be interested.”
I put down the phone in shock. How could this be? Jill, someone I worked with for years before I launched my startup, validated our product before we began operations. She even spoke to our investors. I remember her saying that we were developing a “must-have” product that she would use every day. Why doesn’t she want it now? What happened?
What happened is you hit a ‘false positive,’ which confuses personal excitement with a real need or desire to buy your product.
Why Does This Happen?
False positives happened for a variety of reasons. Most people like to be helpful and giving positive feedback is seen as one way to do that. Also, people generally don’t like delivering bad news, so they sugarcoat their real feelings. And since you are hoping for positive news, you misinterpret that positive feedback; it’s what psychologists call the confirmation bias, you hear what you want to hear. Lastly, people often don’t understand that when you want feedback you are asking for commitment, so they don’t invest too much thought before responding. There are surely more reasons, but it doesn’t matter. The bottom line is you…
